2011 - 2012Research by Clay Showalter and Arij Beebe-Sweet

Energy Systems and Climate Change,The Evergreen State College, Olympia, WA

How sustainable is The Evergreen State

College?

H1: Evergreen is sustainable.H2: Evergreen is sustainable to some degree,

but needs to improve certain elements to become truly sustainable.

H3: Evergreen is not sustainable.Null: There is no way to measure Evergreen’s

sustainability.

Hypothesis

What is Sustainability?The capacity to

endure.

People

Planet

Profitgeo Logic Systemshttp://geologicsystems.wordpress.com/2011/06/21/a-business-case-for-sustainability-attention-alberta-oil-sands-operations

/

Why is sustainability important?

All living things are reliant on a healthy ecosystem.

All creatures impose a load on their environment’s ability to supply what they need and absorb what they excrete.

Carrying capacity is the maximum persistently feasible load for a given creature and way of life.

Carrying Capacity

Technological advances can increase the Earth’s human carrying capacity.

Phantom carrying capacity.

Each enlargement of human carrying capacity means diverting some of Earth’s life supporting capacity away from other species.

Humans & Carrying Capacity

There are several established ways for measuring sustainabilityLife Cycle AnalysisEnvironmental Sustainability IndexEcological Footprint AnalysisAnthropologists Cultural Approach

AASHE STARS (Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System, for Colleges and Universities)Current system used and acknowledged by

Evergreen.

How is sustainability measured?

Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)The GRI framework is the most widely used

standardized sustainability reporting framework in the world.

Developed by NGO’s CERES and Tellus Institute (supported by UNEP) in 1997

Has gone through several revisions as an understanding of the metric has evolved current standard G4 is in practice.

Choosing our Metric

EnvironmentalHuman RightsLabor Practices and Decent WorkSocietyProduct ResponsibilityEconomic

Six Performance Indicators

MaterialsEnergyWaterBiodiversityEmmissions, Effluents, and WasteProducts and Services

Environmental

Investment and Procurement PracticesNon-discriminationFreedom of Association and Collective

BargainingSecurity PracticesIndigenous RightsAssessment/Remediation

Human Rights

EmploymentLabor/Management RelationsOccupational Health and SafetyTraining and EducationDiversity and Equal OpportunityEqual Renumeration for Women and Men

Labor Practices and Decent Work

Community engagement

Operations impacts on local communities

Compliance with laws and regulations

Society

Lifecycle stages of products with health and safety impacts

Practices related to customer satisfaction, such as surveys and evaluations

Product/Services Responsibilities

Direct economic value generated and distributed

Policy and practices of spending

Hiring procedures for administration

Economic

Should Faculty and Student commuting practices be included in our GRI?

Boundaries

GRI Sustainability Reporting Guidelineshttp://www.globalreporting.org/NR/rdonlyres/D8B503A9-070C-43DB-AD0F-5C4ACB1EBF39/0/G31RefSheet.pdf

Decision Tree

Critical evaluation of metric (GRI) and its implementation.

Global Reporting InitiativeSystems Thinking

Vision of the FutureQuestion society faces: What impacts are we

willing to absorb or endure?

Conclusion